


Crush It

by paperficwriter



Category: DC Super Hero Girls (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Crushes, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Senior Year at Metropolis High School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24316099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperficwriter/pseuds/paperficwriter
Summary: Barry has a crush on Carter. Would this have been easier when he didn't talk as much?
Relationships: Barry Allen/Carter Hall
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Crush It

In Barry’s opinion, no one could be manlier or more handsome or more awesome than Carter Hall.

It just didn’t help that Carter was also the quietest person he knew. If he was not in the form of Hawkman, flying and smashing and doing heroics with the rest of the team between classwork and preparations for graduation, Barry didn’t really know what he was doing.

Someone mentioned he liked to feed birds. “Do you seriously expect me to believe that?” he asked incredulously. “That’s like saying I like to run on the track team. Or model red spandex. Just because that’s a hero thing doesn’t mean it fits in our lives.”

Although maybe he should have reconsidered the modeling thing…

It took at least an hour of pep-talking himself up in the bathroom for him to finally get the courage to do something. That day, he zipped in front of Carter before he took off to fly home. They had just finished busting a bad guy who was robbing a jewelry store (was this the week of stereotyping or what?!), and everyone was in a good mood.

Carter was smiling! That was a good sign!

“Hey! Carter! I was thinking, like, do you want to do something after this? Maybe food?”

“Hey, Barry.” Wow, he talked so much more than he did freshman year! “Sure. I could eat.”  
Barry’s heart grew its own set of wings...only for them to immediately burst into flames when Carter turned to Oliver. “You coming? Food?”

“Why, I would love to!” Oliver said, completely ignoring the expression of death in Barry’s eyes. Quickly, word spread, and what could have been a date had devolved into A Post-Fight Invincibros Chowdown. 

At least Barry got to sit next to him. And at one point, when it seemed like everyone was distracted with a video Garth found on his phone of their most recent exploits posted on Youtube, he turned to him. “Hey, sorry this couldn’t have been just the two of us.”

“Why? I thought you liked hanging out with everyone.”

“I did! I do! They’re great!” When they aren’t ruining my life. “But, the reason that I wanted to ask you out was because I wanted to ask you...out. Out-out. Because I like you.”

Carter blinked and then smiled, putting his arm around Barry’s shoulders. Fireworks started going off in his head as they hugged. He hadn’t screwed this up! This was happening! This-- “I like you too, Barry. You’re a great part of the team.”

Part of the team. 

“Am I a great part of the team too?!” Hal asked from over Barry’s shoulder, as his brain fireworks landed in a basket of mental puppies.

“Yeah, of course.”

And now, the moment they could have shared was becoming a Post-Fight Invincibros Group Hug.

Barry wanted to die. He wandered into the library the next day (slow for him, practically dragging at sixty-five miles per hour) and collapsed in front of Barbara Gordon, who had three different laptops open. “Well, I did it, and it blew up in my face. Just the most colossal terrible choice I’ve ever made and I never want to make a choice again.”

“You realize I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Barbara said, not even glancing up from her screens.

“I told Carter how I felt, and...he just didn’t get it. I can’t tell if he doesn’t want to get it, if he’s being purposefully obtuse so he doesn’t hurt my feelings, or if it’s my fault.”

“Bonus points for using obtuse correctly.” She pushed over an open bag of fruit gummies. One moment they were there and the next they were gone. “What--?”

“Sorry. I’m a stress-eater,” Barry said through a mouthful that definitely wasn’t there a second ago. He swallowed before recounting the whole evening to her, from the invitation for food to the group hug to...the very last moment. When he tried one more time to get through to Carter and tell him that he liked him more than just a friend or a teammate. 

“What did he do?”

Barry dropped his head on the table so hard that someone shushed him. “He walked away. Babs, I don’t know what to do. I thought that when you told somebody you liked them and tried to ask them out on dates, it just went either good or bad. They swept you off your feet and kissed you, or they dumped a milkshake on your head and walked off. At least that’s what happens in the movies.”

“Aww, Flashy-Flash, I’m sorry. Honestly, I’m surprised you even talked to him. I thought he was with Shayera.”

“Shayera?! I thought she had a crush on Zatanna!”

“I’m pretty sure they’re just besties, dude.”

Now he felt even worse. If he had misconstrued things this much, and Carter was not only taken but also maybe not even into guys, what would their hero dynamic be like in the future? He never should have said anything. 

So obviously there was only one thing to do at this point: never, ever talk about this again, and avoid any one-on-one contact with Carter outside of Invincibro jobs.

Barry got up and nodded resolutely. “It’s settled then. I will carry on with life, ignore all feelings as they come and pretend that everything is perfectly fine as my heart rots in my chest. Thanks, Babs. Sorry for interrupting your important bat-work.”

He blurred away just as Barbara was closing the laptop where she had been reading a thousand-tweet argument about who would win at the beach: Batman or Aquaman. “Sure thing,” she said, believing she was talking to no one until she glanced up at the table across from hers...into the square-jawed face of Carter Hall.

\---

For a while, his plan worked as brilliantly as it possibly could.

And ‘for a while,’ it was really just that afternoon and the next morning, until Carter started showing up near him. 

“Hey,” he said the first time, “About dinner...when we did that. I, uh. We did have dinner, and--”

Barry backed up with the worst laugh that had probably ever come out of a human mouth. “Oh man, Carter, hold that thought, I’m sorry, I gotta run to the bathroom, I’ll be back in just a few.”

“Doesn’t that usually take you two seconds?”

“The bathroom at home is better. My grandparents’ home. In, uh, Quebec.”

It wasn’t totally a lie. When he flashed away, he did go as far as he was comfortable not getting lost - a state park about fifty miles north - and screamed his frustrations across a serene lake.

But then it happened two more times, and each point when Carter tried to start talking, Barry found fewer and fewer conceivable reasons to avoid the conversation. So by the third time, he just blipped into the highest speed he could go, leaving Carter (and a lot of mussed hair and papers pulled from binders) behind.

He thought he could just keep doing this and wear him down, until Carter actually grabbed him. “Oh my god, where did you even come from?!”

“I’m used to being quiet.” Technically, Barry could have broken out of the hold, but he didn’t. Something in Carter’s expression made it hard to wrench away. Even if he did manage to do it without dislocating his shoulder. 

Barry just stared at him, waiting and ready to stop what he was going to say.

“I’m sorry about the other night, Bar--”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about! I was the one with the wrong impression! Seriously, we don’t even need to deal with this.”

“We do. You tried to tell me something and I was--”

“You were fine! I was the weird guy with the...it’s just a crush, Carter. I’ve had crushes on rock stars, actors, my mail man once. And I just have to get over it.”

“But I’m not asking you to get over it. You are so smart and good--”

“And a good friend, I know, for the team. We’ve got each other’s backs. I’m glad! I’m fine with that! We can just do that forev--”

Carter kissed him. He pulled him in by his arm and kissed him, and Barry felt like he was going to fall on the floor. Gravity had never been such a reality for him. He was used to running so fast he could do it on water, across spans of space, but now he thought he was going to collapse.

When Carter pulled back, he realized he evidently thought he would fall so much that he was gripping the front of his t-shirt.

“I want to date you,” Carter said slowly. “I’m sorry I screwed up your first confession. Also Shayera is my cousin, so. No. That’s not a thing that’s happening.”

“Oh good.”

“And she does really like Zatanna.”

“I knew it! Suck it, Barbara Gordon!”

“Wow.”

“Sorry. I…” Barry shook his head to try to clear it. “Wait, you do want to date me? Do you actually like me? That’s...that’s awesome?! I’m so glad?! What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?” There he was, going back to talking a mile a minute, like if he stopped to let in a breath, the moment might just stop. "Sorry. I'm really excited.

“Yeah, I can tell." Another little kiss on the cheek. "Luckily that is a thing I like about you. But yeah, date. So maybe--”

“I have so many ideas! The movies? No, there’s nothing good out right now. Food? No, too much bad karma with the Date That Wasn’t. How about the arcade? Do you like retro stuff?”

Carter chuckled and held his hand in his. It was massive. Awesome. So awesome. “How about the aviary?”

“Hey, I’ve never been to the aviary! That sounds...wait, you do actually have a thing for birds?!”


End file.
